Page 15 of Secret Origins
9
“Where is your dog?” I groaned when I heard Fenrir at the front door right before it clicked shut.
The Fae was like an ulcer, painful to have around but there was nothing you can do to get rid of it. Apart from it being surgically removed, of course. Closing my eyes, I pictured lopping off his head with my sword and smiled happily at what my imagination created. His boots thumped an even tempo over my floorboards before stopping. Through closed eyelids I couldn’t see him, but I felt the heat from his body burning my skin. He was standing too close.
“What are you up to?” When I did look at him, he was squinting at me in suspicion.
“You need to stop coming here uninvited.” Leaning with both elbows on my kitchen counter, I blew the steam curling above my cup of hot tea. “You and my dog have something in common apart from the name, of course. You both chase tail. That’s where he is at the moment…just like you.” The more his pretty face darkened, the bigger my smile was. “Unlike him, you picked the wrong tail.”
“You are up to something, Myst. What is it?” Just like the proverbial dog with a bone, he wouldn’t let it go.
I sighed.
“Okay, since I can’t wish you away, I’ll play along.” Huffing, I turned around and leaned my back against the counter, crossing the arms over my chest. “What makes you think I’m up to something? It’s too early in the morning, even for me, to cook up trouble.” Flicking my fingers in air quotes on the word trouble, I watched a muscle twitch at the corner of his left eye.
“You are smiling.” Fenrir growled at me like I’d just committed the greatest offense in history.
“I smile plenty, thank you very much—”
“Usually when you smile, someone ends up dead.” He spoke over me, his hand slicing in front of him and chopping the air.
“What is your problem, Fenrir?” My frustration was strangled when he took a step closer, boxing me in between his body and the counter, which was digging into my spine.
“My problem is”—Hunching down to put us face to face, his hands anchored on either side of me so I couldn’t slide away—“there was a minotaur in the middle of a human city—Donn Cúalinge to be precise—trying to kill you. The bull of Dannu has not been seen in over a century. I need to know why.”
“Maybe he was taking a sabbatical and he wanted to make a grand entrance to announce his return?” My attempt at shrugging a shoulder looked like I was spasming, but Fenrir did that to me. He messed with my head. “You’ll have to speak to him about his comings and goings, I’m afraid. Oh wait!” Snapping my fingers in his face, I enjoyed his glower. “You can’t because I cut his head off. Oops.” I shoved him away from me with both hands. “You’re welcome.”
“He is not dead.” Fenrir yanked on the elastic holding his ponytail, angrily collecting his hair to retie it. “Donn Cúalinge is goddess touched. His physical body can die, but that only sends him back to Faerie. Which means he will be back in no time and more pissed off than ever.”
Being aware that something was hunting you like an animal was one thing. Knowing what that thing was and that it couldn’t die was a whole new level of clusterfuck. The back of my skull went more numb with each word coming out of Fenrir’s mouth. The asshole just couldn’t have kept that information to himself.
“Why are you bothering me, Fenrir? I thought Roberti was your main concern. Go hassle him, would ya? I’m pretty sure he is putting together a plan for world domination or something. I, on the other hand, am not.”
I’d go to my grave without admitting to anyone that I actually squeaked like a teenage human girl when he yanked me to him, his arms tightening around my waist. I couldn’t look away when his illusion dropped, leaving me staring at his black eyes with those white pupils that were so intense I had no doubt he could see my deepest, darkest secrets. My body sagged in his embrace, succumbing to his power and scent, which was filling my nostrils and scrambling my brain.
“There are enough in Sienna to deal with Roberti,” he murmured under his breath, those all-knowing eyes flicking to my dry lips. “I made many mistakes in my lifetime, Myst. It’s in my nature to honor my kind. It’s what I was born to do, yet here I am. Scared out of my mind that you will die and I won’t be there to protect you.” My mouth was left open, the words drying on my tongue when he continued. “Or die beside you trying.”
“I don’t need your sacrifices, or your protection. I can keep myself alive.” A small lie but not in million years would I tell him or anyone else that I needed to be saved. “I had the bull under control. He was sprawled on the ground after kissing the lamp post before you popped up. You just created a distraction for me. That might get me killed.”
“Sacrifice was agreeing to do what Soren and my court asked of me as a royal. Following honor bonds for the sake of bloodlines. Being by your side is not.” He pressed his forehead on mine, exhaling deeply and closing his eyes. “I beg of you, let me help you. If it’s your wish, I shall leave when we have dealt with it and there is no threat to your life. I couldn’t bare it knowing you are fighting alone.”
Closing the distance between our faces, I pressed my lips to his. My hands were clutching his upper arms and I felt his muscles stiffen like stone under my fingertips. For one long second that lasted an eternity, and not long enough at the same time, my lungs burned from holding my breath. It had been years since I’d felt his mouth on mine, and I’d been unaware of the hunger my body had for him. Ashamed of being an idiot and succumbing to his prowls, I started pulling away.
With a deep groan that sounded like it was coming from the depths of his soul, he jerked me back, painfully tightening his grip on my waist. His tongue aggressively pushed past, parting the seam of my lips, plundering my mouth with such ferocity I felt dizzy in seconds. Fenrir was not kissing me back. He was trying to devour me whole and that would leave a bigger mark than anything he had ever done before.
His mouth and tongue were leaving a brand, and I was powerless to stop it.
You would think the Fates were mocking me when after days of gray clouds and rain, bright sunrays streamed through the open windows to frame Fenrir in a halo of light that contrasted with his dark hair. I clawed at his shoulders, desperate to pull him closer and push him away, my conflicted emotions only adding to the insanity battering the inside of my skull. Fenrir’s hand smoothed over my back, stopping on my ass where his fingers tightened before he lifted me off the ground. My legs wrapped around his narrow waist, pressing his erection to my center until I was gasping into his mouth from the electrifying currents shaking me to my core.
He wouldn’t let me pull away to take a breath.
His shirt was gone and so was mine while we shared the same air, our lips fused together so intensely it would take one of us dying to separate us. My back hit the kitchen counter a moment before my pants were ripped off my body, followed by the panties and Fenrir’s pants. His hands were everywhere, his touch harsh like he was trying to assure himself that I was real by bruising my flesh. I was on fire. Everywhere we touched skin on skin was burning, and I thought this was the way I go. It’d be him to turn me to ashes and I’d disintegrate without giving a fight.
A scream was ripped from me when he wedged himself more firmly between my legs, entering me in one powerful thrust until his pelvis hit mine. Stretching me across the counter, he got a white-knuckled hold on the edge with one hand and a bruising grip on my hip with the other. His face was twisted in a snarl that should’ve scared the shit out of me, his power blasting out of him like an inferno. Instead, I didn’t think I’d ever seen him more beautiful.
Every muscle of his body that I could see was outlined from the tense way he held himself. The sun was casting shadows over his pale skin, creating dips and divots I wanted to trace with my tongue but could only trace with my fingers. My channel was burning from the harsh entrance of his cock inside me, spasming around his hardness. Mewling noises were passing through my lips I’d never thought I’d hear from myself. It only drove him wilder. Fenrir roared, baring his teeth at me, and them he began to move.
I was digging my nails into his skin, leaving bloodied lines across his chest and abdomen so I could keep myself from flying off the counter. His hips were pistoning between my thighs, each thrust harder than the one before. All thoughts fled my mind, leaving behind only my need and a lustful, dazed cloud. Somewhere in the back of my mind I screamed that this shouldn’t be happening. Nothing should feel this all-consuming and intense, but on the outside, I was giving as good as I got, my body lifting to match his every move. A coil tightened in my lower belly as sensations I couldn’t name spread through my limbs.
